Chp.32: Game over

As Akheilos flew towards the dragon, Carrion didn't wait a second longer and attempted to fly away as well using his divine power. He was terribly debilitated right now, but he could still use a little. The quantity at his disposal would have been sufficient for him to get away at least thirty kilometers. Escape was now his only constant thought; he no longer cared about the aftermath of the battle, the plan, or anything else.

Even though Carrion had never faced an adult dragon in his life, and therefore had never witnessed the power of those monsters, his body had instinctively reacted to the sight of the beast and that was enough to make him understand that he absolutely must not fight against that creature. When he had seen the dragon, Carrion had felt his blood freeze, his heart pounding, his breathing become rapid, and every hair on his body stand on end. It was the first time in his life that he felt such fear before even facing his opponent. It was as if his body retained an ancestral instinct within itself that was activated at the mere sight of a dragon. Carrion knew that a soldier, while appealing primarily to rationality, also had to trust his instincts, so he had no doubts in deciding that escape was the best option.

However, while he was still getting off the ground, a punch landed in his face, with such power that he flew for a few meters. When he recovered Carrion looked up and saw that Kotaru still had his hand raised. "Uungh... why?" he asked in pain. "Why are you siding with that dragon, woman? You can't trust him!"

Carrion didn't understand why those two humans were on the dragon's side. From the strength of the punch, they must have been level adamantium; in any nation, they would have occupied important positions in society. Why help a dragon, the greatest danger to any living creature? Was he blackmailing them? Or had he covered them up with false promises? Or...

"Shut up" Kotaru grumbled. "And for the record, we're not humans. Like you"

Carrion's eyes widened. Those two women looked like human beings in all respects... but weren't they humans? Were they like him, outcasts who disguised themselves as humans? Suddenly he felt very confused emotions. Maybe those two women were really like him... maybe they weren't so different... maybe he could convince them to go back to the right path, instead of following an evil dragon. "I don't know what that monster promised you, but you mustn't believe him! Dragons are deceivers! When all this is over, he will kill you too! It doesn't have to end like this. I know you are afraid, but if you come with me we can..."

"They're not afraid and I haven't promised them anything. They're helping me of their own free will" Haku suddenly said stepping forward. "Instead of worrying about their safety, I suggest you worry about yours. You're not in a good position at the moment. You have very little divine power left, am I right?"

Carrion grit his teeth furiously, but he couldn't contradict Haku's statement. His divine power had dropped dramatically. He'd wasted half of it summoning Akheilos, so that already had weakened him badly. But also, with his mana completely wiped out by the nullification rune, he'd lost further strength. And finally, almost everything he had left was currently busy fighting the hydra venom inside his body. At present, Carrion could only rely on five percent of his godlike power. Which meant that his current strength was equivalent to 'just' five level adamantium soldiers, rather than one hundred. Even if he decided to continue fighting and the adult dragon that was flying in the sky was gone, he would have no chance to turn the tide of the battle: against the beastmen army, which would normally have been helpless against him, this time he would end up very badly. The battle was completely lost.

His silence seemed to equate to an answer for Haku, as the dragon smiled wickedly. "As I expected. Everything went according to plan. I'm sorry to tell you so openly, but you lost. Your goddess didn't favor you this time"

Those words lit a fire in Carrion's heart, and he forgot for a moment about the adult dragon in the sky. "Unfortunately, you're right. But don't think I'll let you go unpunished. I can't do anything more for this battle, but I still have enough divine power to kill you!" he exclaimed as he drew his sword. "I'm going to cut you into pieces so small it won't even be possible to put yourself back together!"

"Tempting offer, but I'm forced to reject it. Unfortunately, I like staying alive too much" Haku replied rhetorically, before turning and walking away. "Anyway, I'm not going to face you. Kotaru, Finiar, please take care of him here. I'm going to do that other thing"

"Don't worry. We'll take care of this idiot" Finiar replied, taking her weapons in turn, followed by Kotaru. These were daggers enchanted by Maldor and with runes carved on the handles, extremely powerful and deadly. Haku let out a satisfied snort, and then jumped onto the rock wall. His claws dug deep into the hard stone and his powerful muscles kept him balanced. Very slowly he began to move horizontally away from Carrion.

Carrion watched the scene somewhat confused and dazed. The dragon he wanted to slay was walking off quite undisturbed, leaving her two mates to face it alone. This made him somewhat irritated. "Don't try to run away, you coward!" he exclaimed, throwing his sword at Haku. But Kotaru leapt and let the sword go through her, blocking her attack; the force of the blow was so strong that Kotaru bounced back several meters before he was able to stop herself.

Carrion was speechless. Had that woman just sacrificed herself to save a dragon? What was going on? But his confusion stopped when he saw the woman stand up as if nothing had happened and draw his sword from her chest. "Now I understand... you two are necromancers!" he exclaimed. "That's why you are helping a dragon. I guess there's some kind of understanding between the servants of the evil. Well, at least I won't have to feel sorry for killing you too!"

"Oh, come on! As if you ever felt sorry for killing anyone, you traitor of your race!" Kotaru answered with the clear intention of making him angry.

Carrion's eyes flashed. "Don't you dare call me that! I am a chosen one of the goddess!" he yelled, drawing two short swords and lunging at the two women.

Kotaru and Finiar gave each other a knowing look, and then they began dodging Carrion's attacks continuously. Just as they had with Hara and Thornag, they attacked and struck and retreated before he could react. Currently Carrion was even weaker than Hara and Thornag, therefore even if there were only two of them it was easy for them to manage him thanks to their perfect coordination and the fact that if their avatars' brains weren't permanently damaged they could suffer any injury without no damage since they regenerated quickly.

Their intent was obviously not to kill Carrion. Even though he could only use five percent of his power, he could still use it to protect himself well, fortifying his body and improving his defense and attack capabilities. Even so debilitated, Carrion was not an opponent that could be defeated by just two levels of adamantium. They just wanted to hold him there while Haku walked away and carried out the last part of the plan.

As they fought Carrion looked up several times to check what was happening in the sky, since he certainly hadn't forgotten the presence of the adult dragon. Luckily, Akheilos seemed to be holding it quite well... though it seemed more that the dragon was too arrogant or lazy to fight against the spirit. However, Carrion began to have suspicions when he saw Akheilos attack and the dragon simply dodging his blows or responding with rather weak attacks. "What the...?" he murmured confused.

His doubts were clarified after a few minutes: after the umpteenth attack of Akheilos, the body of the adult dragon vanished revealing a human on the back of a royal basilisk. Carrion gasped in horror, realizing that he had been deceived. He turned his head almost mechanically to look at Finiar and Kotaru. "That dragon… was just… a trick!"

"I wouldn't call it a trick. Rather a bait and switch" Finiar replied with a mocking smile. "And the two fishes took the bait immediately. And now, one of them has fallen into the fisherman's trap"

Carrion watched Akheilos and saw him disintegrate and return to the realm of the goddess Heloisa. He realized that the divine power with which he had summoned him must have been exhausted by now, and that therefore the spirit could no longer remain in the mortal world. "Damn you... to fight in such a dishonorable way...!"

"Dishonorable? This is a battle, not a duel! There is no honor or rules in battle!" Kotaru answered proudly. "Now, one fish has been caught. I guess it's time for the fisherman to catch the second one as well"

"What are you talking about?" Carrion asked not understanding, but Kotaru and Finiar in response launched themselves against him again and returned to attack him.

Meanwhile, Haku had already moved away from them a lot. He was still clinging to the wall, and he was looking up at the sky. When he too saw Akheilos being sent back whence he came, he realized the time had come: for now the spirit could no longer come to Carrion's aid even if he were in grave danger. He'd been worried when his sisters were discovered, but the plan had worked in the end anyway. He was lucky that Akheilos wasn't a very intelligent being: if he had been he would have gone right back to Carrion instead of continuing to fight against a false dragon. But after all, Haku had learned from a while that luck was just as important as intelligence, if not more.

Now it was his turn. The time had come to finally put an end to that clash. He opened his jaws wide and pointed his mouth at where Carrion and his sisters were standing, and then he let out an extremely high-pitched cry, the same one he had used to shatter a stone in Kotaru's presence weeks ago, but this time he lasted for much more time; in fact, he continued to scream for almost a minute, so much so that his vocal cords began to ache. But finally he heard a rumble. The entire rock face filled with cracks, as if it were being crushed by an immense force.

Sound was an extremely powerful weapon. With it you could pin enemies, shatter their eardrums, collapse their organs or, if the sound was loud enough, disintegrate them thanks to the sound wave. Haku, as a dragon, possessed vocal cords of extraordinary strength, capable of emitting very high frequency sounds. And if he used that skill well, he could even cause a landslide. During those four months Haku had trained to find the right frequency capable of breaking the structure of the rock, splitting it into its components, and he had succeeded very well. Therefore, by yelling with that sound frequency in the direction of where Carrion was standing, Haku could literally bring down the whole wall on him.

Carrion didn't hear the sound, since it was too high in frequency for human ears to hear, but his eardrums ached and his whole body shook; with his remaining divine power he summoned protection upon himself, but soon the sound of the rock breaking made him realize what the dragon's true intent was. He tried to fly up before the wall collapsed, but Kotaru and Finiar grabbed his arms and pinned him to the ground. "What are you doing!? You'll also die... oh, right" Carrion murmured, forgetting for a moment that the two couldn't die. The next second, the wall of rock collapsed.

Carrion found himself plummeting from several dozen feet high, hit by several tons of rock that all fell on him at the same time. Any mortal creature at that moment would have been torn apart and reduced to a pulp, but Carrion was still able to resist thanks to the divine power he still had. But even though the landslide wouldn't technically have killed him, it still hurt him tremendously. As the rocks fell into the valley below, they gave off a crash and kicked up a cloud of dust so thick it was impossible for a while to see what had happened. When the dust cleared, everyone could see that a piece of the left wall of the Arapaina Gorge at least twenty meters long had completely collapsed, leaving a deep crack in the rock face and a huge pile of stones at its foot.

Haku observed the result with satisfaction. He knew Carrion probably wasn't dead yet, but it was certain that he wouldn't be able to emerge from his rock tomb very soon. "Game over" he said aloud, before starting to descend the wall.